Jeffrey Colwell traveled an uncommon path to his position as clerk of U.S. District Court in Denver, one that wound through the Naval Academy, flight school, the first Gulf War and Guantanamo Bay.

Along the way, the now-retired Marine generated some headlines, once ordering attorneys under his command to stop written communication with Guantanamo detainees they were defending, saying the prison camp’s inspection of their correspondence violated the attorney-client privilege.

“It was exciting, cutting-edge stuff,” said Colwell, 47, explaining why he left the Marine Corps after 25 years and landed the clerk’s job. “But I was ready. You get burned out after a while, and the military model is one where you don’t stay in one place very long.”

Colwell’s is a “beautiful background” for an administrative job where the best clerks “let the judge do the judging and they do everything else,” said James Manspeaker, retired clerk of federal court in Denver, who held the job for 30 years.

Colwell took the job in September. He is responsible for administering jury plans, overseeing and managing court plans and managing sequestration of jurors among other things, Manspeaker said.

Many clerks, like Manspeaker — who started in the courthouse as a file clerk — work their way up to the job. And while it is not unusual for a court clerk to be a lawyer, “this boy goes above the spectrum,” Manspeaker said.

Colwell defended a man involved in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa before commanding the military defense lawyers for the Defense Department entity that administers Guantanamo Bay military commissions. He sees his new job as a chance to serve in another leadership role.

“I was looking for a change and a challenge,” he said.

He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1987 and took a commission in the Marine Corps as a second lieutenant.

He wanted to be a jet pilot, but Navy and Marine pilots must qualify for carrier landings. Colwell could land on an airstrip, but it became clear that he didn’t have the control needed for carrier landings.

He was a communications officer in Saudi Arabia and then Kuwait during the first Gulf War, but he decided it wasn’t a career path he wanted to pursue.

The Marine Corps paid Colwell’s way through Suffolk University in Boston, where he earned his law degree before going to Naval Justice School to become a military lawyer. He began his legal career in Okinawa, Japan, prosecuting Marines for offenses ranging from unauthorized absence to rape.

Eventually, he was assigned to defend Guantanamo Bay detainees charged with terrorism in front of military commissions.

Colwell represented Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian accused of participating in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Marine colonel and his co-counsel, Maj. Richard B. Reiter of the Air Force, got to know Ghailani and traveled to Tanzania to meet his family.

They came to believe that Ghailani was duped into participating in the bombing, which killed 224 people and injured thousands.

“He was a young kid at that time who was sort of lured and used as a pawn,” Colwell said.

In 2009, Ghailani was transferred to New York City, where he became the first, and so far the only, Guantanamo detainee to face a civilian trial.

A federal judge in Manhattan assigned civilian lawyers to handle the case, but Colwell and Reiter continued to work with Peter Quijano and the other civilian lawyers assigned to the case for about four months.

Quijano and his fellow civilian lawyers credit Colwell and Reiter with developing the defense. Their relationship with Ghailani and their ability to listen and develop a “mental image of what (Ghailani’s) life was like” led to the conclusion that he was used by others, Quijano said.

A jury acquitted Ghailani of more than 280 counts of murder and conspiracy, convicting him of one count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property.

He is serving a life sentence in the federal prison in Florence, and his case is on appeal.

Colwell was living in the Washington, D.C., area with his wife and two children last year when he decided to retire, and found the clerk’s job during a Google search.

“We tolerated D.C.; we didn’t love it,” he said.

Besides the opportunity to be in a leadership position and still be around the practice of law, the clerk position offered a great location for a family that loves the outdoors, he said.

“In the past, I had thought that if I could live anywhere, I would pick Colorado,” he said.

A general assignment reporter for The Denver Post, Tom McGhee has covered business, police, courts, higher education and breaking news. He came to The Post from Albuquerque, N.M., where he worked for a year and a half covering utilities. He began his journalism career in New York City, worked for a pair of community weeklies that covered the west side of Manhattan from 14th Street to 125th Street.

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